Singles Awareness Day
by HeyStasia
Summary: (Pre-Game events) Every Valentine's Day, Hannah and Sam have a tradition to celebrate themselves instead of worrying about boys. However, this year, something unusual is going on amongst the Washington kids. (Rated K for language)


I twirled a thin, limping French fry in the puddle of ketchup on my Styrofoam tray, only occasionally glancing up to look at the purple gift bag adorned with red curly ribbon. I know Hannah has a long walk from algebra to the cafeteria, but this was why I even came to school today. Valentine's Day has always been one of my least favorite days, but Hannah and I have our special tradition to make up for it. My dazed twirling was suddenly halted when I felt someone embracing me from behind. I was relieved to hear the familiar tone of my best friend's voice wishing me "Happy Singles Awareness Day!"

Hannah let me go and pranced to the cafeteria seat across from me, taking off her backpack and putting it on the bench next to her, as I said "And to you, too, Han."

With lots of excitement, she unzipped her backpack and pulled out her lunch box, and a shiny red gift bag with light pink tissue paper inside. I could tell that she was quite eager, so I asked "Would you like me to go first?" And she nodded 'yes' in response.

I took the red bag and rummaged through the pink paper. I pulled out a plush barn owl with big, sparkling eyes. "Oh my gosh, it's so cute! I love it," I told her.

"There's more!" She said with a smile

I reached back into the bag and grabbed the other part of her present, a plastic phone case that was a beautiful picture of a warm colored sunset. I told Hannah how pretty it was as I grabbed my phone from my jacket's pocket and began taking off my old case to replace it with the new one. "Thank you so much, Han!"

"You're welcome! I'm so glad you like them."

"And now it's your turn," I replied, gently pushing my present toward her.

Hannah looked in the bag, and she let out an audible gasp as she pulled out the crystal butterfly earrings I bought her. "Sam, these are gorgeous!" She took a closer look, adjusting her glasses, "Are these my birthstone?"

"Yea, sapphires," I confirmed

"That's so thoughtful, wow, thank you so much!"

"There's a matching hairclip, too," I slyly mentioned

She gasped again as she looked back into the bag, taking the barrette out, and immediately putting it in her hair. She told me countless times how much she loved it, and we thanked each other profusely.

As we started to actually eat our lunches, a student council representative came up to us and said, "Hey, just a reminder that today's the last day to buy CandyGrams before we hand them out at the end of the day."

Hannah and I politely declined, but thanked her anyway. When she walked away, I rolled my eyes, remembering that CandyGrams were the thing that got me to hate Valentine's Day so much. Every year, the senior class sells CandyGrams around Valentine's Day as a fundraiser for senior prom. For a dollar, you can send a small bag of candy and a personal written message to a person of your choice. They get them at the end of their seventh period class on Valentine's Day. The only time Hannah and I ever received a CandyGram was in eighth grade. We got them from "secret admirers" and our little, naïve, eighth grade hearts were so excited. When we later found out that they were sent as jokes, we were devastated, so we made our own tradition for Valentine's Day from there on out. Instead of celebrating Valentine's Day, we celebrate Singles Awareness Day. We buy each other presents, and that weekend, we go to either of our houses, try to cook a Pinterest dessert, and watch Disney movies. This marks year three of our new tradition, and every year is more exciting than the previous.

"Do you have Pocahontas for this weekend?" Hannah asked me

"I'm not sure, I have to check. But that reminds me that I have the test on colonial North America that I totally didn't study for. Can I use your notes?"

"I gotchu, girl," Hannah said, reaching for her backpack, "You can give me the notebook back when we hang out this weekend."

"Hannah, you are a lifesaver."

Just then, I noticed Hannah's older brother behind the glass wall. He was pacing and looked kind of anxious, like he was debating going somewhere or not. "Hey, Han?" I began as she searched for her notebook, "Is Josh okay today?"

"He seemed fine when he drove me and Beth to school today. Why?"

"Look behind you. He seems like nervous or upset."

Hannah looked up from her search to watch her brother pace in the hallway behind her. "I don't know, man. I can ask him about it later," And she went back to looking for her notes.

I, however, continued to watch Josh. He settled on staying in one spot as he took his backpack off his shoulder, and looked inside. He began to nervously search for something in the backpack, pulled out a spiral notebook, and started flipping through the pages. He went from cover to cover, and looked shocked when he reached the back. He flipped through the pages again. And again. And another time. Each time he flipped, it became more frantic. What was he looking for? I saw his mouth make the words "fuck it" as he put the notebook back in his backpack, swung it over his shoulder, and walked out of view.

"Found it!" Hannah declared as she took a spiral notebook out of her own backpack and handed it to me, "This is just history notes; nothing personal. You can look through it all."

"Thank you so much, Han. This'll really help."

"No problem, Sam. I know you'd do the same for me."

And with that, the bell rang, and Hannah and I parted ways for now.

The last class of the day was always the worst. You know it's the last class, and you know how close you are to freedom, so time just drags on and on. At least I can look forward to my walk to the parking lot with Josh. Once he found out that his last class was across the hall from mine, he's waited for me outside so that we could walk together. "Okay, class," the teacher began, "I'm going to give you three minutes to look over your notes before the test."

Thank goodness! This review is going to be so helpful. I reached into my bag, and pulled out Hannah's notebook. I flipped through the pages, but I couldn't find anything on North American colonization. Most of the writings looked like essays. I opened up to one page to get a better look, and I noticed that it wasn't even Hannah's handwriting. Did Hannah grab one of her siblings' notebooks by mistake? I was about to close the notebook in defeat, but a dog-eared page caught my eye. My curiosity got the better of me, so I opened up to the homemade bookmark. The scribbles of my name certainly sparked my interest, along with various words being crossed out in frustration.

Your smile is sunshine that keeps me going

When we talk, I know you think I'm spacey/I'm just so lost in your beautiful eyes

Your laughter is my favorite thing to hear

I'm glad to be part of your world/You're an important part of mine

And with a big red circle around it:

You deserve to feel as beautiful as I know you are.

After reading that, I immediately shut the book closed. I could feel my face flushing red. Were these about me? Whose notebook is this? It isn't Hannah's handwriting, so whose is it? I totally flunked my test because of my intrusive thoughts of someone in the Washington family writing these things, presumably about me.

Toward the end of class, the student council representative from lunch dropped off the CandyGrams going to kids in the class. I plugged my headphones into my phone and turned on my music, trying to drown out the nonsense. I was taken aback when a bag of candy with a heart shaped card attached plopped on my desk. Confused, I took the card, and read it:

To: Samantha Pierce

I wish I could tell you everything.

From: Anonymous

The bell rang. I immediately packed up my stuff to go and meet Josh. This brought up such bad memories from eighth grade, and I needed to get this off my chest. He was waiting right outside the door as he always was. "Jesus Christ!" I began my rant, "I got another god damn fake ass secret admirer CandyGram bullshit, Josh. I am livid."

He could barely get his words out. "Uh, what? Wha-what are you talking about?"

"This!" I exclaimed, shoving the bag of candy in his face.

He took it from my hand, and read the card out loud. "I dunno, Sam, it uh, sounds like someone may actually," he swallowed, "I dunno… like you? Have a crush on you?"

"Well, if they do, they should just be honest with themselves. I don't trust anonymity."

And I swear I heard Josh barely mutter, "Easier said than done."

When we got to the parking lot, Hannah and Beth were waiting at Josh's car so they all could go home. After venting to the twins about the whole situation, I topped it off with, "And Hannah, you didn't even give me the right notebook."

"I didn't? Ohmigod, I'm so sorry, Sam. I hope you didn't fail the history test, I could've sworn that was my history notebook."

"Uh, Hannah," Josh chimed in after being unusually quiet, "I have your history notebook. We must have uh… switched by accident."

I immediately started to blush again. I could feel the heat in my cheeks, and I couldn't look at anyone. I opened my bag, took out the notebook, and put it out in Josh's direction, saying, "So, uh… this belongs to you."


End file.
